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311-660 in Denver

Ive seen a few threads that mention people are picking up 311-660 in various markets and its supposed to be assigned to MetroPCS. Ive been picking it up at night occasionally in south Denver. Metro has never had a presence here and I picked it up well before the T-Mobile/MetroPCS deal was final. Anyone have any ideas?

I know LTE is scheduled to be lit up in Denver in June (I haven't seen any testing yet with my iPhone 5), but that network is puzzling. I also pick up AT&T, but it wont let me connect to it, just shows NO SERVICE.

Ive seen a few threads that mention people are picking up 311-660 in various markets and its supposed to be assigned to MetroPCS. Ive been picking it up at night occasionally in south Denver. Metro has never had a presence here and I picked it up well before the T-Mobile/MetroPCS deal was final. Anyone have any ideas?

A few weeks ago, someone spotted it in Colorado Springs as well. My assumption is that MPCS was attempting to expand their home network into parts of Colorado prior to the merger. According to their coverage map they already have an "Extended Home Area" in Colorado.

I picked it up in Csprings. The MetroPCS LTE is only coming from the one T-Mobile tower that is also hositng T-Mobile LTE. It appears that TMO is broadcasting both MCC/MNC's from their native equipment. Perhaps this is the first step to let MPCS customers onto the T-Mobile native network, even with a MPCS phone? I did read somewhere that T-Mobile was trying to work out a way to get VoLTE up so that MPCS customers with appropriate handsets could still use VoLTE on TMO's network. I think that was from tmonews.com, can't remember at the moment.

For now, MetroPCS customers roaming outside MetroPCS cities will still make voice calls over Sprint's network, but T-Mobile is working on a "VoLTE path," which would route MetroPCS calls over T-Mobile LTE, Ray said.

I also wanted to add that by 11:30 last night the network was gone from the search list. It seems only be at night and only for a few hours.

Originally Posted by ac21365

I picked it up in Csprings. The MetroPCS LTE is only coming from the one T-Mobile tower that is also hositng T-Mobile LTE. It appears that TMO is broadcasting both MCC/MNC's from their native equipment. Perhaps this is the first step to let MPCS customers onto the T-Mobile native network, even with a MPCS phone? I did read somewhere that T-Mobile was trying to work out a way to get VoLTE up so that MPCS customers with appropriate handsets could still use VoLTE on TMO's network. I think that was from tmonews.com, can't remember at the moment.

I also wanted to add that by 11:30 last night the network was gone from the search list. It seems only be at night and only for a few hours.

Heh, I'd expect that kind of behaviour with unlaunched sites. There's only one site here that has broadcast LTE so far, but they seem to be broadcasting LTE from the tower located here nonstop. That said, I've only been able to connect to LTE twice, and only for 2-3 minutes each of those times. Who knows what they're up to :P

T-mobile announced a while back that the Metro PCS brand would be expanding to several new markets in short order after the merger. Denver was one of the announced markets; I would suspect that this is the first step of that expansion.

I picked it up in Csprings. The MetroPCS LTE is only coming from the one T-Mobile tower that is also hositng T-Mobile LTE. It appears that TMO is broadcasting both MCC/MNC's from their native equipment. Perhaps this is the first step to let MPCS customers onto the T-Mobile native network, even with a MPCS phone? I did read somewhere that T-Mobile was trying to work out a way to get VoLTE up so that MPCS customers with appropriate handsets could still use VoLTE on TMO's network. I think that was from tmonews.com, can't remember at the moment.

So these new service areas will only include LTE?
If MetroPCS is interested in serving new markets in the meantime then they'll have to rollout CDMA on existing T-Mobile USA sites (when permitted) or drag the market rollout under 311-660 until VoLTE is deployed and forget about CDMA.

Secondly, the only way MetroPCS customers can utilize the T-Mobile network is to switch devices. I suspect that existing SIM cards could work, but what would more likely would occur is that new SIM cards will be issued with the MetroPCS label, and be programmed as 260 the home network.

Secondly, the only way MetroPCS customers can utilize the T-Mobile network is to switch devices. I suspect that existing SIM cards could work, but what would more likely would occur is that new SIM cards will be issued with the MetroPCS label, and be programmed as 260 the home network.

From what I understand, this is the plan. I'm also under the impression that T-Mobile has no plans of re-using Metro equipment, at least in areas where TMUS has already deployed NSN and Ericsson AIR equipment. So I think that's what we're seeing here: the planning stages of having Metro users 'roam' onto native TMUS equipment with the endgame of having Metro's customers completely on TMUS network in order to ultimately have them use a new TMUS branded device.

I picked it up in Csprings. The MetroPCS LTE is only coming from the one T-Mobile tower that is also hositng T-Mobile LTE. It appears that TMO is broadcasting both MCC/MNC's from their native equipment. Perhaps this is the first step to let MPCS customers onto the T-Mobile native network, even with a MPCS phone? I did read somewhere that T-Mobile was trying to work out a way to get VoLTE up so that MPCS customers with appropriate handsets could still use VoLTE on TMO's network. I think that was from tmonews.com, can't remember at the moment.

From what I understand, this is the plan. I'm also under the impression that T-Mobile has no plans of re-using Metro equipment, at least in areas where TMUS has already deployed NSN and Ericsson AIR equipment. So I think that's what we're seeing here: the planning stages of having Metro users 'roam' onto native TMUS equipment with the endgame of having Metro's customers completely on TMUS network in order to ultimately have them use a new TMUS branded device.

I'd reuse those RBS 6000's in areas that need them. The LTE network for MetroPCS is completely separate from MetroPCS's CDMA network.

RBS 6000 Base Station
Unveiled at Mobile World Congress in 2008, Ericsson's RBS 6000 base station provides MetroPCS with flexibility and upgradeability. Along with LTE, the software-upgradeable base station supports Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), GSM and GPRS/EDGE.

Agreed. In areas where T-Mobile doesn't have WCDMA yet, it would make sense to upgrade backhaul to existing MPCS sites and just add WCDMA to the existing site. That's basically a free ticket to network expansion without the trouble of adding new sites and (completely new) base station infrastructure. I'm sure shuttering the legacy GSM equipment at those sites will be nice for T-Mobile's bottom line too.